Artificial-silk-thread-handling apparatus



P wfH. uRNEss 1,800,829

ARTIIICIAL SILK THREAD HANDLING APPARATUS Filed July 14. 1928 3Sheets-Sheet 1 Jgj. 6

INVENTOR BY W WYM A TTORNEYS' Aid] 14, 1931. W FURNE S 1,s00,s29

ARTHIC IAL SILK THREAD HANDLINGAPPARATUS Filed July 14. 1928 3Sheets-Sheet 2 April 14, 1931. w. FURNESS ARTIFICIAL SIII-IK THREADHANDIJING APPARATUS Filed July 14. 1928 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR 5 mATTORNE 6 I Patented Apr. 14, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WILLIAMH. FURNESS, OF NATIONAL PARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO FURNESS COR-PORATION, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEYARTIFICIAL-SILK-THREAD-HANZDIQING APPARATUS,

Application filed July 14,

This invention relates to apparatus for handling artificial silk thread,as, for eX- ample, where it is desired to unwind the thread, treat thethread with a sizing or other liquid treatment, grade the thread, or tosoften it and the like, and is. a continuation in part of my copendingapplication Serial N 0. 181,614., filed April 6, 1927.

One of the primary objects of the invention is to provide simple,compact and effective apparatus for conducting any or all of the aboveoperations. I I Another object of the invention is to make it tions asthe above chine.

A further object of the invention is to effect damage in the handlingand s iipping of the finished thread.

My invention also contemplates theprovision of an effective drivingmeans for use in carrying out operations, such as above 1nd1- cated,with facility and without injury to the thread.

How the foregoing, together with such other objects and advantages asmay hereinafter appear, or are incident to mxjnvention, are realized isillustrated in preferred form in the accompanying drawings, wherein-Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a machine constructed in accordance withmy invention, with a portion thereof baoken out to condense the figure.

Fig. Qis a cross section taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged front elevation, partly in section, of a reelmoving or lifting device which I employ.

Fig. 4 is a cross section taken on the line H of Fig. 3 with the deviceshown in one of its positions.

Fig. 5 is a cross section similar to Fig. 4

possible to effectively conduct such operaon a cotton twisting ma-.

1928. Serial No. 292,839.

with the and Fig. 6 is a fragmentary view illustrating a modification ofmy invention.

Referring now particularly to Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings, the machinecomprises in general spool supporting and driving mechanism A and reelsupporting and driving mechanism B. I

The mechanism A comprises a plurality of spindles 7 adaptedto berotated'at high speed; as by means of a belt drive 8, each spindlecarrying a spool 9 onto which the silk is ,wound. The spools 9 arereadily removable from the spindle in a manner well known in textilemachinery, and, in fact, the spooling mechanism A may be of a formcommercially used for winding or spooling cotton.

A brake device 10 is provided for each spindle 7 whereby the spindlesmay be stopped independently. of one another. The brake devices operateon the drive pulleys 11 of the spindles so as to grip them and hold themagainst rotation, the'belt slipping on the pulleys when the brakes areapplied. Suitable knee plates 12 are provided for operating the brakedevice.

A traverse plate or bar 13 is associated with each battery of spindles.The traverse bars are provided with a plurality of hushed apertures 14,one for each spindle, and an eyelet 15 for guiding the thread is carriedby each of the aperture bushings, the eyelets being free to rotatearound the bushings; The travdevice shown in another position,

erse bars are reciprocated as by means of cam operated levers 16 havingroller engagement with guide bars 17 having their hearings in theframework of the machine.

The reel supporting anddriving mechanism B comprises a plurality ofpairs of supported and driving rolls or rollers for the reels of silk Cadapted to be driven from a common drive; reel lifting or movingmechanism D associated with each reel and through the meidum of whichany reel may be stopped without interrupting the drive for the remainingreels; and trough means E associated with one of the supporting rolls ofeach pair of rolls and adapted to contain liquid for subjecting thethread to a sizing or similar treatment. I

In this instance I have shown the reels arranged in four batteries, twoof which are arranged above the other two and the reels of each batterybeing supported and, rotated by means of a pair of rolls 18 and 19. Asthe roller arrangement for each battery of reels is the same, only onewill be described. The rolls 18 and 19 extend from one end of themachine to the other and are provided with bearings and a suitablenumber of intermediate bearings. The roll 18 preferably is of largerdiameter than the roll 19, but'as these rolls must run with the samesurface speed if efi'ective drive is to be obtained, I have taken careof the difference in diameter by using drive mechanism of such ratio aswill cause the surface speed of the rolls to be the same. The driveillustrated is a chain drive, and considerin the two right handbatteries of Fig. 2, is as follows. The shaft 20 is driven by anysuitable form of ratio changing mechanism located within the housing 21and carries a gear 22 which meshes with'the gear 23 mounted on the shaft24 of the lower roll 18, and thus this roll is driven. The shaft 24 alsocarries sprockets 25 and 26. The sprocket 25 drives the lower roll 19through means of the chain 27 and sprocket 28 and the sprocket 26 drivesthe upper roll 18 glrough means of the chain 29 and sprocket The shaft24a of the upper roll 18 carries a sprocket 25a which drives the upperroll 19 through means of the chain 27 a and sprocket 28a. In order todrive the rolls 18 and 19v with the same surface speed, the sprocket 25is made larger than the sprocket 28. The drive for the two left handbatteries is the same as for the two just described. In some instancesit may be suflicient merely to drive one of the supporting rolls l8 and19.

The reels C have driving relation with the rolls 18 and 19 through theirweight, and in the preferred form shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the flanges ofthe reels engage the rolls so that the reels are driven peripherally atthe flanges. In some cases it may be desirable to drive the reels in themanner illustrated in F g. 6 1n which the cake of thread onthe reeldlrectly engages the rolls for If desired, unflanged cylin ers may beemplo ed. rom the foregoing it will be seen that by vlrtue of theperipheral drive-I am enabled to readily place the reels on the rolls orremove them therefrom' without stoppin the machine, as would benecessitated i the reels were mounted on a shaft. k

In the operation of the machine it is oftimes desirable to stop' aparticular reel or reels for ins ection, grading or other purposes whilet e remaining reels continue in their rotation, and, therefore, ashereinbefore' ripheral drive.

stated, I have provided suitable mechanism 1) for moving the reels outof driving engagement with the rolls. This mechanism comprises asupporting and guidin having upright portions 31 whic are slotted at 32to receive the pinned ends 33 of a'mov-' able member 34 adapted to swingand be vertically moved in the slots 32 upon actuation of an operatingrod 35. The lower end of the member 34-is guided by means ofthechanneled laterally extending portion 36 of member 30 Y the support 30,and the lifting action is imparted to the movable member 34 through theengagement of this member at 37 withthe ribs 38 of the portion 36.

Referring now to Fig. 4 I have illustrated the lifting mechanism IS inthe position which it assumes when its reel is rotating, and in Fig. 5 Ihave illustrated its position when the reel is lifted out of engagementwith the rolls. This latter position is also indicated the upper ends ofthe portions 31 of t e members 30 position the reels.

Although the operating rods 35 of the lifting mechanisms D may becontrolled independently of the knee brakes of the spindles I prefer tointerconnect them so that when a s indle is stopped its correspondingreel wil also be stopped. To accomplish this I have provided,considering now the lower reels, a lever 42, pivoted at 43 and havingits free end 44 connected to the operating ro 35 which lever is actuatedby a rod 45 contacting at one end with the knee 12 and at its other endwith the lever 42. Thus when an particular knee plate is actuated to appy the brake to a spindle, the lifting mechamsm for the correspondingreel is actuated to lift the reel out of contact with the drivin rolls.Similar levers 42a are rovided for ac uating the lifting devices of t eupper reels. p In connection. with the operation of the lifting devicesD it is pointed out that as the member 34 moves the reel u wardly thereel is thrown slightly rearwar ly-into engagement with a fixed bar 46and, therefore, the. reel is moved entirely clear of both drivin rolls18-and 19, as indicated in dot anddas lines at the lower right hand reelof Fig. 2'. Referring now to the ath of the thread from the reels to thes 00% first, the lower reels, t e thread passes from the reel over theroll 18, then over the rounded edge 47 of the trough 48, then throughthe s and considering,

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elyelet 49 located coaxially with the spindle, t on through therotatably mounted eyelet 15 hereinbefore referred to, and finally ontothe spool. The path of the thread from the upper reel is very similar,excepting that the thread passes through the upper eyelets 50 beforepassing through the lower coaxia-l eyelets 49a. Although I have shownthe thread passing over a rounded edge of the trough 48, it is to beunderstood that I may employ a suitably located rod or bar over whichthe thread passes instead of overthe edge of the trough.

The troughs 48 are adapted to contain a liquid such as oil for treatingthe thread as it passes over the rolls, and it will be seen from Fig. 2that the rolls dip into the liquid and carry the liquid to the thread.

The reels which I employ are preferably of such a construction as to beadapted to carry a cake of thread which is relatively wide andrelatively shallow, as such a cake will not have its thread becomeentangled. The thread may be laid up into such cakes in accordance withmy (10- ending application Serial No. 239,405, filed eoember 12, 1927.

As will be seen from Fig. l the center to center spacing of the reelsalong the driving rolls far exceeds the necessary center to centerspacing of the spindles, and also exceeds the spacing of the spindles ofstandard cotton winding machines, and, therefore, in order to be enabledto employ standard cotton winding machines, or, on the other hand, to beenabledto construct a new machine of the least possible extent as tolength, I have provided the novel double deck arrangement abovedescribed in its details, in which the reels of one row of reels arelocated above alternate spindles of the row of spindles, and. in whichthe reels of the row of reels thereabove are located above the remainingspindles.

From the foregoing it will be seen that I have provided a very com actmachine for unwinding artificial sill; t read from reels onto spools inwhich the thread may be effectively subjected to a sizing or similartreatment at a point intermediate the reels and rolls and in which afinal twist is imparted to the thread as it winds onto the lid spools.This final twist due to the change in position of the fibers produced,softens the thread.

By drivin the reels or cylinders in the manner set lbrth the thread islaid on the s ools with substantially no tension on the thread otherthan that imparted by the loop, i. e.; the machine operates in suchmanner that there is no tension on the thread which "would result in theturning of the reels by the thread. This is of great advantage as it isobjectionable even with coarse thread, not to mention tine denierthreads, to cause the reels to rotate by the pull of the thread .be-

cause of the detrimental efiect on the thread. Owing to the shape of thecake of thread, constant speed reels and constant speed spindles may beemployed without. affecting the denier of the thread.

The arrangement of Fig. 6 is advantageous, particularly with threadofextremely fine denier, or where the cake of thread on the reel isdifferent from that described, for as the diameter of the cakedecreases, the speed of the reel increases, notwithstanding the constantspeed of the driving rolls, which compensates for the increasing rate atwhich the thread is laid upon the spools as their diameter increases.For all practical purpose, with a cake such as hereinbefore .de-

scribed, the drive of Fig. 1 is quite satisfactory.

Among other advantages, the silkis wound directly onto spools such asare employed in the machines of the mills ultimately fabricating thethread into cloth. Furthermore, I entirely eliminate theskeiningoperations heretofore required for solitening and treatingthewashed and dried silk. I, therefore, not onlv eflecteconomy inmanufacturing operations, but also for the mill using the silk, besideswhich the damage which frequently resulted to the thread in the handlingand shipping of skeins is obviated.

Furthermore, the compactness of the machine reduces the number ofoperators rcquired and the amount of effort required of the operators,and keeps a multiplicity of reels under close observation.

Owing to the character of the drive and the facility with which thereels maybe inserted and removed from themachinc, the operators canreadily grade while winding, ensuring that the thread on a spool shallbe of uniform grade throughout its length. For example, if when startinga new reel on a partially filled spool, it is discovered that the threadis not of the same grade as that already wound, that reel is set asidefor winding onto a spool havingthe same grade, and is replaced byanother reel having the proper grade of thread.

While the thread is fed from the reels it is nevertheless laid on thespools with sufficient tension to retain the twist finally imparted andto avoid the tangling which would result receive and support a row ofsimilar cylinders, and said cylinders, located over the remaining spoolsof the row of spools, all cylinders being capable of being readilyinserted and removed without disturbing the driving means, together withmeans whereby any cylinder can be independently moved out of drivingrelation, said last mentioned means having guide means for preventingunintended displacement of the cylinders when either in their driven ornon-driven relation.

2. In artificial silk, thread apparatus of the character described, acylinder or the like containing a cake of thread to be unwound,

a pair of rollers spaced laterally to receive and support the cylinder,means-for driving said rollers, a fixed member associated with thecylinder, a movable member having a position in which it is clear of thecylinder and a position in which it engages the cylinder, said movablemember and said fixed member being so located relative to each other 4and to the rollers that the cylinder engages the fixed member and leavesthe driving rolls when said movable member is moved to its position oiengagement with the cylinder, and means for moving said movable member.

3. In artificial silk thread apparatus of the character; described, acylinder or the like containing a cake of thread to be unwound, a pairof rollers -spaced laterally to receive and support the cylinder, meansfor driving said rollers, a fixed rail mounted in close proximity to theperiphery of'said cylinder when the cylinder is in position on therollers, a movable member mounted adjacent the periphery of saidcylinder, and means for moving sa1d member to a position in which it isout of contact with the cylinder when the cylinder is-supported by thedriving rollers v and to a position in which it contacts with thecylinder to move the cylinder out of contact with the driving rollersand into contact with the fixed rail.

4'. Inartificial silk thread apparatus of the character described, acylinder or the like containing a cake of thread to be unwound,

a pair of rollers spaced laterally'to receive and support the cylindermeans for driving said rollers, a fixed rail mounted adjacent theperiphery of said cylinder, a movable memermounted adjacent theperiphery of'said cylinder', and means for moving said member to aposition in which it is out of contact with the cylinder when thecylinder is supported bythe drivingrollers and to a position in which itcontacts with the cylinder to move the cylinder out of contact with thedriving rollers and into contact with the fixed rail, said movablemember having means for preventing axial movement of the cylinder in allof its positions.

In testimony whereofi I have hereunto signed my name.

WILLIAM FURNESS.

